Amnesty International Monday reported that hundreds of civilians have been killed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv by indiscriminate Russian use of cluster munitions and inherently inaccurate rockets. The report documents 606 civilians, including children and the elderly, killed and 1248 injured by indiscriminate Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region. Amnesty International claims the attacks amount to war crimes.
Russia and Ukraine are not members of any international conventions regarding the banning of cluster munitions and anti-personal mines. However, Amnesty International believes that international humanitarian law prohibits the use of indiscriminate attacks and use of weapons that are indiscriminate in nature even if Russia is not a party to any international convention related to indiscriminate attacks. According to the organization, cluster munitions are “widely banned” around the world.
In a statement, the Amnesty International called “for justice processes to be as comprehensive as possible, ensuring that all perpetrators are brought to justice through independent, impartial, and fair trials for all crimes under international law.”